OTM Biographical and Photo Sites

If you are interested in online biographical sketches of old time fiddlers and bands from the classic era, David Lynch’s oldtimemusic.com and Ahmet Baycu’s 1001tunes.com have pages dedicated to biographical info. These 2 links and the Dixie Archive blog also feature photos of the artists.

In a 1934 interview, fiddler A.A. Gray said, “Once I toured south Georgia with a big crowd, playing in a lot of conventions.” In the same interview, he also had something to say about his strategy for winning. “I find that the tune you play has a lot to do with winning prizes. A fellow just ahead of me [on the south Georgia tour] used ‘Bully of the Town’, and that’s a mighty good piece. He won four prizes in a row. Finally, I happened to think of ‘Bucking Mule’. It’s a hard piece, but it’s snappy, and you do a lot of fancy work behind the bridge that makes the fiddle bray like a mule. I won so many prizes [with that tune] that the other fellows got to calling me ‘Mule’ Gray.”